Perhaps it was the theme from Love Story, thought Perth Voice photographer Matthew Dwyer as he snapped a couple in a romantic embrace while Antonio Diaz busked. Diaz was in a philharmonic orchestra in Colombia and has only been in Australia for three weeks. While London was more profitable he’ll be sticking around a while…

FIRST it was browny orange, then it was grey, now the Beaufort Street sign has a new pastel skin. The Voice returned to nearby workers Emma Sim and Claire Whitecross from Envy Beautician for an updated opinion on the new paintjob. They’d called the last design “hideous” and said it had been attracting a lot…

Artist Drew Straker beside his laneway art in Highgate, in between St Michael’s restaurant and Orno Interiors on Beaufort Street. The laneway-pimping is part of a series of initiatives by the Beaufort Street Network and Vincent city council to jazz up the area.  

PAID parking and higher fines are on the cards for Bayswater—which covers the Morley Galleria areas—as the council conducts a review of its parking laws for the first time in 10 years. Neighbouring Vincent, Stirling and Perth city councils all charge for parking within their boundaries. The review will take around six months, including public…

STUART LOFTHOUSE says he’s to face formal assault charges following a scuffle in Vincent council chambers on July 22. The Leederville cafe owner has told the Voice police have informed him his summons is in the mail, and he is to be charged with assault of a public officer. Conviction carries a maximum sentence of…

GROUND has been broken on Vincent council’s bike network, with workers rolling out the bobcats on Bulwer Street this week. Just over a year ago mayor John Carey—then a councillor—peered at the miserly amount budgeted for bike paths and told colleagues “we’re greatly underfunding bicycle network infrastructure” in the face of crisis-levels of car congestion.…

NEW bike barriers intended to slow down cyclists in Hyde Park are little more than hazardous barricades says veteran pedaller Ian Ker. The former Vincent councillor headed the teams that developed the Perth bikeplan of 1985 and the Bike Ahead Strategy in 1996, and says these kinds of barriers reflect outdated thinking. The world’s moved…

STIRLING city council has voted to stop letting people build separate granny flats in restrictive covenant areas. Portions of Coolbinia, Menora and Mt Lawley are covered by 80-year old covenants allowing just one dwelling per 1000sqm: granny flats up to 70sqm had been exempted, as long as family members lived in them. But recently the…

STIRLING city council will spend around $15,000 to send mayor Giovanni Italiano to an urban regeneration and sustainability conference in Siena, Italy. The conference runs for three days in September, but the city has budgeted $2196.53 for seven nights’ accommodation ($313.79 a night) and a seven-day cash advance of $1582. Business-class flights cost $9938. “I…

BAYSWATER ratepayers might have to put up with mounting rubbish after contractor Transpacific grounded its national fleet pending a safety review. The company operates rubbish collection services across Australia, including Bayswater, and is conducting a safety review following a fatal accident in Adelaide on Monday. “At this stage it is uncertain when operations will recommence,…